Steer Clear of Harmful Chemical Additives in Food

Being a mom and having to do the weekly family grocery shopping often by yourself, have you ever stopped to think about what those ingredients in those food labels of processed food really mean? Did you know that some of those chemical additives that are marked as ingredients are potential cancer-causers? Probably not, because despite the fact that the Delaney Clause of the 1958 Food Additives Amendment declares that all additives that have been proven to be harmful or cancer-causing are not legally allowed to be added to commercial food, the country's political pressure has bullied the FDA to lower their degree of strictness on the matter and tolerate "little" amounts of carcinogenic substances and other dangerous ingredients in processing foods. As a result, the majority of Americans purchase and partake of certain foods that the FDA has allowed to contain detrimental substances and even small quantities of cancer-causing matter. There are actually certain food additives that have been proven to cause allergic reactions in several people. Also, specific groups of people including pregnant women, babies, people with hypertension and people with kidney-related problems are targets of some chemical additives in food.

Since knowledge about these kinds of edible substances is not common information, you would probably never find out whether the processed food you are buying at the grocery store actually contains harmful additives or not, even if you carefully read the food label twice over!

Carcinogenic ingredients that are passed off as good ingredients in product labels are hard to pinpoint. However, you can master a few of these harmful ingredients if you took the time to familiarize them enough. The following are several "bad" food additives that you are likely to meet while wandering in the grocery store aisles:

1. Acrylamide - This cancer-causing additive is usually found in breakfast cereals, French fries, taco shells and snack chips.

2. Aspartame - Chiefly used in diet soda drinks and as part of the sugar substitute "Equal," Aspartame has been scientifically proven to cause symptoms akin to multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and memory loss.

3. Acesulfame-potassium or Acesulfame-K - An artificial sweetener that failed FDA standards after causing cancer to lab animals in experiments.

4. Hydrolyzed vegetable protein - Ingestion of this may result in brain and nervous system damage in infants.

5. Artificial colors or FD&C colors - Beware of these food colorings which are usually derived from carcinogenic coal tar.

6. BHT and BHA - You can see these two being used as stabilizers, preservatives and antioxidants. While BHT combined with other food stuffs can trigger chemical reactions creating carcinogens, BHA on the other hand, has been proven to cause cancer.

7. Sweet 'N Low or Saccharin - Commonly used as an artificial sweetener, Saccharin was removed from the list of cancer-causing chemicals in 2000 despite proof of its being carcinogenic.

8. Olestra - A synthesized fat substitute, Olestra was initially used in making commercialized potato chips. It has been reported to cause digestive and other problems such as abdominal cramping plus diarrhea.

9. Nitrites and Nitrates - When ingested, these help cause cancer. They are found in store-bought preserved meats, including salami, bologna, hot dogs, and bacon.

10. Potassium bromate - This is mainly used as a flour improver and is known to cause cancer. Amounts of it can be traced in many brands of bread and flour.

11. Carrageenan - It can be found in some milk products and can cause ulcerations in the gastro-intestinal tract as well as gastro-intestinal cancer.

To tell you more, chemical additives that are used as preservatives can be grouped into 3 kinds, namely: antimicrobials that obstruct bacteria growth, such as molds or yeasts; antioxidants that retard the oxidation process of fats and lipids to prevent rancidity, and a third kind that battles enzymes that encourage ripening in fruits or vegetables.

v Sulfites block microorganism growth in packaged foods by disrupting the normal functioning of their cells.

v Propionates used as antimicrobials help retain the freshness of bakery products.

v Nitrites and nitrates prevent the growth of lethal botulism bacteria and give cured meat its fresh pink color and stops it from turning brown.

v Antioxidant preservatives impede food chemical breakdown when products are exposed to the air. Vulnerable to oxidation, unsaturated fatty acids in oils and lipids will taste rancid without antioxidants.

Thirdly are preservatives that attack food enzymes in fruits and vegetables that ripen these foods after their harvest. Ascorbic acid or vitamin C and citric acid hinder the ripening process by making the pH level too low for the enzyme.

These are only a few of the chemical food additives common in processed foods which pose as dangers to the health of you and your family. Observe and be vigilant about what your family eats; you never know what harmful chemical food additives those greedy food companies are trying to slip into your food.